Non-Fiction: Awesome

Lady Liberty: A Biography, by Doreen Rappaport, illustrated by Matt Tavares--The history of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor is told in ten distinct voices, from the French law professor who dreamed of giving a gift to the American people to the sculptor who created the gift; from the American newspaper man instrumental in funding the gift's construction to the workers who built it. The dream was so long in being fulfilled and took the vision and labor of so many to be realized, it is amazing the Statue of Liberty was ever completed. The French law professor was Edouard-Rene Lefebvre de Laboulaye, and in the summer of 1865 he first voiced his desire to gift a monument to the United States to celebrate their Centenniel. Auguste Bartholdi was the sculptor who heard Laboulaye's idea. Bartholdi was immediately captivated by the idea and worked for ten years to create a design while France waited for the rule of Napoleon III to end and for the opportunity to begin raising funds to finance the project. The Statue would not be completed and dedicated until 1886, more than twenty years after Laboulaye and Bartholdi began their quest. Laboulaye died in 1883, and so did not live to see his dream realized.

All of this, and the story of the construction, are compressed into a scant fifteen or so pages of text. The formatting is almost poetic, and the vocabulary appropriate for elementary and middle-school children alike. The illustrations are soft and clear, showing the dream of each individual associated with the production of the Statue of Liberty. I am not ashamed to admit I got teary more than once as I read Lady Liberty.

Non-Fiction: Inspiring

I, Matthew Henson: Polar Explorer, by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Eric Velasquez--When I was in school and learned about the discovery of the North Pole and the conflicting stories of Admiral Peary and Doctor Cook, I never once heard the name of Matthew Henson. I first heard of him two or three years ago as I pulled biographies of African-Americans for Black History Month. He was given a chapter in a book about several African-Americans who had made great achievements. Sooooo, I was overjoyed to see I, Matthew Henson on the SCBAN list.

If you are not familiar with him, Matthew Henson was a black man born in 1866. After his parents died, he ran away to sea at the age of 13 and became a cabin boy. He sailed to five continents, learned numerous languages, and many trades. When his captain died, he had trouble finding work with white crews who would treat him as an equal. He quit the sea to become a stock boy (man?) in a men's store. This is where he met Robert Peary and changed the course of his life. For the next twenty years, Henson sailed with Peary, first as Peary's personal valet, then as trusted fellow explorer. They took seven trips to the Arctic before finally reaching the North Pole.

I, Matthew Henson stops on that triumphant note. The text leading up to that moment is driving and determined, and the illustrations, while in seemingly fuzzy pastels, reflect that determination with strong lines and colors. I was positively inspired by the whole package, and will be pushing it most heartily into the hands of readers, eager and otherwise.

Ghostly adventures

All the Lovely Bad Ones, by Mary Downing Hahn, is (if you'll forgive the expression) a haunting story. Travis and Corey are a brother and sister sent to spend the summer with their grandmother at her Vermont inn. Upon learning that the inn is supposedly haunted, they pester their grandmother for information and she states that in the three years she has run the place, she has never had a ghostly encounter of any kind. When some guests indicate they would be thrilled to witness otherworldly activity, Travis and Corey set out to give it to them. Their pranks attract the attention of visitors both earthly and not. The Inn at Fox Hill is flooded with guests and ghost hunters who find themselves under attack by ghostly pranksters.

Travis and Corey are frightened at what they have begun, but when the spirits approach them directly, they learn just what went on at Fox Hill to cause the dead to be restless. Determined to set things to rights, brother and sister begin bringing to light the horrors visited on the children who occupied Fox Hill in the mid-nineteenth century. As the truth comes out, the search for a solution takes on more urgency.

I spook easily, so I am not a fan of ghost or horror stories, either in print or on screen, and I am glad I read this one during daylight. I am, however, unequivocally glad I read it. Travis and Corey are believable, and the history of the fictional Fox Hill is credible. There is nothing in it I would feel uncomfortable letting a third-grader read, but it will also appeal to older children who simply like a good ghost story.

An award-winner

Return to Sender, by Julia Alvarez, is a moving, thought-provoking exploration of freedom, patriotism, and friendship. Tyler's family hires Mexican workers to help out on their Vermont farm after his dad is severely injured in a tractor accident. Three young girls are part of the Mexican family, and one of them, Mari, is placed in Tyler's class. In constant fear of la migra, the immigration police, the girls' father and uncles restrict themselves to the farm. Their mother is missing. As Tyler learns more about their family, he is by turns grateful, resentful, confused, and sympathetic. When one of the uncles is arrested after leaving the farm with Tyler's brother, Tyler goes with an interpreter to visit him in jail so he can deliver messages from the family. As the family's troubles escalate, Tyler's support becomes more and more tangible and meaningful.


This book won the 2010 Pura Belpre' Author Award, and its fully developed characters and tightly woven plot are a joy to read.

At last, a Young Adult selection!

Princess Ben, by Catherine Gilbert Murdock, is, at first, hard on a reader looking for a fully sympathetic heroine. Benevolence is the niece of a childless king and his queen. When she is fifteen, Ben's parents and uncle become the victims of tragedy, and she is forced to leave her family home to live in the castle with Queen Sophia. While Sophia's handling of the formerly much-indulged Ben is clumsy at best and abusive at worst, Ben's reaction to even the most sensible of Sophia's commands and requests is met with defiance and sullenness. Her refusal to acknowledge the fact that she would one day be queen pointed a sharp finger at her parents, who had apparently shown no interest in preparing her for the throne. I was hard-pressed to be charitably inclined toward parents who were so indifferent to their daughter's and their country's future. It's not like it was a secret that the king and queen had no children and that Ben would one day rule.

Things come to a head between Sophia and Ben, and the queen takes the agonizing step of locking Ben in a tower every night, away from all comfort. One night, Ben discovers a secret staircase in the tower. It leads to a long-hidden wizard room containing an unbelievable amount of dust and dirt as well as a spell book. Ben begins to teach herself magic, and learns a few other lessons in the process. Events conspire to cause her to flee the castle in disguise and she finds herself captured by her country's sworn enemies, who do not recognize her. As a slave, Ben works harder than she has ever worked in her life and learns self-control she never dreamed she possessed.

I found myself cheering for Ben in her struggles. For the first time, she takes to heart the safety of her country and all that it means to be a ruler. She escapes from captivity with the determination to put that hard-won lesson to good use. How she does so is a breathless, roller-coaster of a ride.

The pain of parental separation

The Totally Made-up Civil War Diary of Amanda MacLeish, by Claudia Mills, opens with the line, "Only in our house, thought Amanda MacLeish, could a Friday night family Monopoly game turn into the Civil War." The scene is painful, and any child who has ever suffered through watching his or her family disintegrate in front of them will identify with Amanda and her older sister. Her parents' separation isn't the only thing which goes wrong in Amanda's life. Her sister becomes more sulky than ever, her best friend seems to pull back from her, and she fails to stand up for another friend who suffers the insults of a racist. The only thing which seems to be going right is the Civil War diary assignment from her fifth-grade teacher. Amanda finds ways to weave the contemplation of her personal life into the diary entries for her fictional counterpart, a Maryland girl whose two brothers have chosen opposite sides in the Civil War. Writing the entries helps her to work through the emotions stirred up by her parents' separation and the other events in her life.

Ms. Mills has definitely made Amanda's mother the heavy in the piece, using her less-than-sunny nature as a reason for Mr. MacLeish's lack of effort to put his family back together and his quick turn to another woman. Obviously the speed with which his affections are maneuvered is evidence of his own weakness, but most kids, especially daddy's girls, won't necessarily catch that. Amanda is ten years old, and I wouldn't recommend this book to any child less than that age. And as a parent, if I knew my child was reading or had read the book, I would definitely take the opportunity to discuss the frailties of both adult MacLeishes.

Divorce from the child's point of view

42 Miles, by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer, is the story of Ellen/Joey/JoEllen. At twelve years old, the only life she has ever really known consists of shuttling between her mom's house during the week and her dad's house on the weekends. She's had big changes in her life in the last year: her grandfather died, her grandmother moved to Florida, her dad moved from his old house just four blocks away to his parents' old farmhouse in the country, she has started middle school, she has had to begin wearing glasses. Her story, told in free-verse, highlights the differences of her split lives. Her parents named her after themselves, Joseph and Eleanor, but have never agreed what to call her. Her mother calls her Ellen, her dad calls her Joey. Ellen lives in the city, going to school, playing the saxophone, listening to street music, working in the second-hand shop owned by her best friend's mother. Joey lives in the country, wandering the woods with her cousin, going to church with her father's family, listening to bluegrass, mucking out stables.

Just before her thirteenth birthday, she decides that she will do her best to combine her two lives. She insists on having one birthday party instead of two. She makes the decision to be called JoEllen by everyone. She invites her city friends to sleepover in the country and invites her cousin to visit her in the city. She cuts her long hair and donates it for cancer patients. She even stands up to the school bully.

I enjoyed this peek into the life of a child of divorce. JoEllen doesn't seem whiny about her separate lives, merely a bit frustrated and uncertain. The catalyst for change comes about in the form of a Language Arts assignment--an autobiography project.

But I don't know which life to describe,
Joey's or Ellen's,
and it's not as if Mom and Dad
share stories of my childhood
over the birthday candles each spring
or even
inhale the same air
if they can avoid it.

This assignment
makes running the seven-minute mile
in gym class
seem painless by comparison.

As she researches, though, she realizes:

...they don't see in me
the mirror image of their mistakes--
or even what they hated in each other--
but the best that
each of them had to offer.